The present invention relates to a method for aligning solder balls, and in particular to a method for aligning and sticking solder balls onto the electrodes of a semiconductor chip or connection pads of a circuit substrate before soldering.
In a known method, a semiconductor chip is mounted on a circuit substrate, and solder balls are heated and melted to couple the electrodes of the semiconductor chip with connection pads of the circuit substrate electrically and mechanically. In implementing this method, it becomes necessary to align and stick the solder balls onto the electrodes of the semiconductor chip or connection pads of the circuit substrate.
Such alignment of solder balls has heretofore been performed as follows. First of all, a mask having a number of holes corresponding to aligned positions of the solder balls is placed on the electrode face of the semiconductor chip or the component mounting face of the circuit substrate, and solder balls are supplied onto the mask. Under this state, the mask is vibrated to put solder balls into holes of the mask, or solder balls are put into holes manually one by one by using a tool such as a vacuum pincette or a brush. Thereafter extra solder balls existing on the mask are removed by using a brush, for example.
Such a method is described in JP-A-58-35935, for example.